A Winter's Intimacy
by 3.14rate
Summary: A tiny story detailing the closeness of a winter's night, with faces inches apart and words left unsaid. A re-imagination of Oliver and Felicity's first "night out," with a winter's touch and warm coffee, instead of missiles and explosions.


Deciding that I don't exactly like my writing style from a few years back, here's the result of a quick rewrite of a previous story using current interests. I've originally planned this as a oneshot, though have plans for it to be a few chapters longer if requested.

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><p><span>A Winter's intimacy.<span>

The gentle breeze crested her head into a halo of golden plume, freeing stray strands from the ribbon that she wore, mopping across her forehead with tufts of her blond locks. She grimaced for a brief moment, struggling against an invisible enemy before a firm pair of hands brushed alongside her face, twirling the uncomfortable strands in an almost methodical fashion, pulling them behind her reddened ears, ones that she swore were only that shade of blush because of the cold.

She muttered her thanks, slightly annoyed at the evening's chill, though a soft roseate shade did quickly spread over her cheeks at his touch, ones that her fuchsia dress could very much be jealous of.

"You should see me when I come out of the shower, it's way worse than..."

"I mean," her words fumbled disastrously across her mind as her face grew incandescently redder than before, "I'm not saying you should see that, I mean."

"I know what you mean." He laughed softly at one of her usual innuendo breakdowns, smartly preventing any more cases of awkwardness, "how's the coffee?"

Her hands were wrapped around a medium sized cup, seemingly grasping at it's escaping warmth, somewhat regretting her decision to wear a slightly revealing dress instead of a woolly Eskimo's outfit. Oliver however, did not seemed to be fazed in the least, she remembered the enemies he had fought, the pain he had endured, suddenly the winter's chill seemed almost too childish a thought.

"It's good," which kind of was a lie, she hated this particular brand and their use of excessive cream, but a warm steaming cup for her freezing fingers to embrace and some much needed caffeine to calm her nerves sounded pretty good in hindsight. As if to prove her point, she lifted it up to her lips, taking a huge gulp before realizing that it wasn't exactly the smartest of ideas. She coughed as she started hopping around the place, the burning liquid ran down her throat, with her very much resisting the thought of burying her face in the piles of snow around them before eventually calming herself down.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, "I'm..."

"Nothing is going well at all," her voice broke a little as she caught his stoic gaze, hoping that she would not meet the emotionless facade he hid behind, "it's just that it's the first time we're going out together without involving the arrow, like it's a date, date sort of thing and I'm just nervous and I'm talking really fast and I..."

Embarrassed at her own reaction, Felicity looked away, her face taking on an almost childlike blush, like as if she could sink into that little corner of hers, on that busy sidewalk they stood on. Avoiding his gaze, there was a soft yelp of both surprise and shock when she felt his fingertips grazed across the edge of her chin, gently as they traced from her jaws to the side of her lips. Her heart thumped hard in her chest, threatening serious cardiac arrest as she tried to struggle in the opposite direction, wanting nothing more than to face him, yet the thought of what she would see scared her more than anything else.

She looked away.

It was then he grip tightened, not forcefully but with a firm gesture, tugging her in his direction, tilting her face towards him,that stoic expression replaced by... something else. A warm sight, strong but with eyes that held the same vulnerabilities, same fears that she had. And as she looked desperately into them, it was the colors of a cloudless blue sky, emphasizing on how impossibly hard it would be for her to truly grasp or to understand the things he had been through, but then she understood at that moment itself, that he too was afraid, of the same things unspoken between the two.

But it wasn't something the they could not overcome... together.

His jacket lightly fluttered as he leaned close, with such proximity she could smell the flouriest scent of his breath, she felt her eyes flicker, closing instinctively as his palm curled against the side of her face. At least her eyelids weren't as nervous as she was.

As she tightly jammed her eyes shut, waiting for what would happen next, she felt his breath linger on her skin, warm in contrast to the cool winter's night. She could not move, could not think. Her lips lightly pursed in response, waiting for something that never came.

His warmness was fleeting, as hastily as it arrived, it dissipated into an embarrassing confusion, the brush of his fingers breaking her out of her little trance.

Felicity opened her eyes and blinked rapidly in disarray, her mind flooded with millions of questions.

Oliver simply smiled at her, then up at the star filled night, "beautiful isn't it?"

As if sensing her predicament, he grinned as he pointed to the cup she held in her hand, then to the side of his own lips, like as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh, the coffee, you had a little smudge on your face."

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><p><em>Fin.<em>

A/n: Not sure if he had blue or green eyes. The actor's blue, but the comic's green. Which do you all prefer?


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